


A Story That We Set In Concrete

by DetectiveJoan



Series: Asexual Atypicals [2]
Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: Asexual Character, Episode: 35 Patient #13-A-3 (Chloe), Gen, Mini Episode: 9 Sunday After My Session, Past Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-05 06:30:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11572320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveJoan/pseuds/DetectiveJoan
Summary: “I didn’t have sex with Mark,” Damien says by way of greeting. “I know that’s what you really wanted to ask me yesterday, when you were asking if I’d made him do anything he didn’t want to do. And I know you didn’t want to say that in front of Chloe or Dr. B, but you want to know and now you do."(Takes place after Mini Episode 9/Episode 35)





	A Story That We Set In Concrete

**Author's Note:**

> **Please mind the non-con warning.** This fic deals with Damien's sexual history, which canonically involves sex his partner(s) couldn't consent to.

As much as Sam sort of wants to punch Damien again, she figures that someone should pop back in to make sure he isn’t dead; seeing Damien so pliable had left Chloe unsettled all night, so Sam takes it upon herself to check on him the next morning.

Damien buzzes her into his building without hesitation. It feels like an invasion of privacy before she even reaches his apartment.

“I didn’t have sex with Mark,” he says by way of greeting as soon as he opens the door.

“Excuse me?” Sam says, gaping. She's very grateful that the rest of the hallway is deserted -- not that she knows anything about Damien's neighbors, but she'd rather not have this sort of conversation where other people can overhear. 

“I didn’t have sex with Mark,” Damien repeats. “I know that’s what you really wanted to ask me yesterday, when you were asking if I’d made him do anything he didn’t want to do. And I know you didn’t want to say that in front of Chloe or Dr. B, but you want to know and now you do. He and I didn’t do anything sexual.”

Sam pulls her jaw off the floor and steps into the apartment. It looks unsettlingly normal. There are breakfast dishes in the sink and a calendar pinned to the wall and a pile of books stacked haphazardly on the coffee table. She clutches the strap of her purse a little tighter. “You’re just saying that because I want it to be true.”

Damien shakes his head immediately, then hesitates. “No. Well, yes, I know that’s the answer you were hoping for, but that doesn’t make it a lie. You want me to be honest more than anything.” He closes the door behind her. “That’s what Mark wanted from me the most, too. You two make quite a pair.”

Something in that stings -- perhaps because he’s the reason she and Mark haven’t been a _pair_ for the past four months.

“Why didn’t you?” she asks sharply. Maybe she doesn’t really want to know the answer to this, but if not then Damien won’t tell her. That’s probably how it works, right? “Seems like a pretty arbitrary line for you to choose not to cross with your powers. If you were really as close to him as you claim you were, why wouldn’t you?”

Damien is making the ugliest face, like he wants to spit on her. Or pay her back for that punch yesterday.

“I know that you -- that most people -- hear of a desire-based ability and automatically think about sex, but that’s not really important to me, okay? Try not to faint from the shock.”

Sam scoffs. “What, so you’ve never used your ability to make someone sleep with you?”

“I did once,” Damien admits, “a few years ago. I didn’t actually want to have sex, but everyone was always talking about sex like it was such a big deal and I wanted to understand what got everyone’s panties in such a twist.”

“So you forced some poor girl to sleep with you?” Sam’s mouth is dry at the very idea. She’s been on edge for months, thinking about the possibility that Damien could do something like that to Mark.

“Yeah, I did. But I regretted it basically as soon as it happened. Not that I exactly chose to make it happen -- I didn’t have as much control over my ability back then as I do now. But I wanted it, so she wanted it, so it happened. I knew it was kinda gross --”

“Try kind of rape,” Sam bites.

“-- but neither of us could stop it. And it wasn’t even that great. Still no idea what the big deal is. But I haven’t been curious enough about it since then for my ability to take control of someone like that again. Like I said, Mark was completely safe in that regard.”

Sam can’t even look at him. Her stomach is churning at the whole story. Damien had said it all like it was meant to be reassuring and perhaps on some level it is. She doesn’t have any reason to disbelieve him, and it is nice to have some sort of hope that Mark wasn’t -- wasn’t _violated_ in that way. But she still feels sick.

She flexes her fingers, feeling the soreness leftover from yesterday’s punch.

“I’m functioning just fine,” Damien says after a terse moment of silence passes between them. “That’s why you’re here, right? To make sure I’m not dead yet?”

“Yeah.” Sam has very abruptly had enough. “Yeah, that’s all I’m here for. And you are both as alive and as disgusting as ever, so I guess that’s me satisfied. I’ll leave you be.”

She crosses back to the door in two quick strides, yanks it open, and disappears down the hall.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from The Jane Austen Argument's "Song In This Book"


End file.
